Solomon: Berkman open-minded about a trade

Published 5:30 am, Thursday, May 6, 2010

Lance Berkman is in the final year of his contract, with the Astros holding a $15 million option for 2011.

Lance Berkman is in the final year of his contract, with the Astros holding a $15 million option for 2011.

Photo: Julio Cortez, Chronicle

Solomon: Berkman open-minded about a trade

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The Astros' clubhouse was dark, lights dimmed to match this dark season.

Some song from Enya's album Only Time, as appropriate a death march composition as has ever been penned, played on the stereo. (Please tell me why anyone with a reason to live would listen to that stuff.)

One of Lance Berkman's teammates had placed a couple of Berkman's bats under a towel, as if the towel were a blanket and the bats were babies that had been rocked to sleep. The idea was that after an afternoon nap, those babies would be wide awake by game time.

Oh, it was sad.

Unfortunately, visitors to the clubhouse might have to suffer through Enya and darkness again today, after Carlos Lee blasted his first home run, a two-run shot in the bottom of the ninth, to lift the Astros to a 4-2 win over the Diamondbacks.

At least the few folks remaining at Minute Maid Park saw a victory on Cinco de Mayo in this sinko of a season in which the nine-win Astros already have had two eight-game losing streaks.

The season has been so ugly that Berkman has had thoughts about it coming to an end — somewhere else.

If you are like me, you have pictured Berkman riding off into the sunset, feted as one of the franchise's all-time greats and a likely Hall of Famer, having hit each of his home runs, scooped up all of those grounders and delivered every one of his often hilarious one-liners in an Astros uniform.

Willing to change plans

That is the way it is supposed to be. But the veteran first baseman admits he has considered the possibility he might not finish his career as an Astro. In fact, were he in charge — and barring a miracle run over the next couple of months — he might even look to trade himself.

“If it was me and I was running the show here, if we didn't make a great comeback like we did in '05 and be sort of around .500 by the All-Star break, I'd try to trade every veteran I could to reload,” Berkman said. “That's the quickest way you're going to be able to reload and get it going in the right direction.

“As a player, if they came to me and said, ‘Hey, we've got a deal to go to a contender,' I'd take it. Heck, it's only a three- or four-month deal. It's not like I'm signing on for 10 years with another team.”

Berkman is in the final year of his contract, with the team holding a $15 million option for 2011. He wants to retire an Astro, but if things don't pick up and the team comes to him with a trade, he might, in essence, take one for the team.

“I would say yeah,” Berkman said. “I think it would benefit the organization, and in the end, it would be a benefit for whoever it is — whether it's me, or Roy (Oswalt) or Carlos. I'm not saying we're at the point where they should start pulling the plug on us, but they need to start thinking forward. If this thing keeps going like this, they've gotta do something.

“If you're running a team, you don't want to get caught in baseball purgatory — where you're not really getting young and you're not really (competing). Where you're in this deal where every year you're signing a marginal veteran and you just never get in the mix.”

Purgatory? Heck, the Astros have been on a fast-moving elevator to Hades. If they go down a couple more stretches like they already have, the elevator roof could catch fire. The franchise has never had two eight-game skids this early in the season.

Hot streak to come

Indeed. Winners don't adjust too easily to losing.

“I have been fortunate to play on at least competitive teams for most of my career, and it just stinks, you know, when you're getting older and really want to win. And then you kind of think, ‘Aw, man, how long before we win here?' ” Berkman said. “This organization has been great to me. I love the Houston Astros. No matter what happens, I'm always going to be an Astro at heart. But as you get older, you definitely start to look at things like that, and you say, ‘How many sub-.500 seasons do you want to play?' ”

See what losing and that crazy music has wrought?

This is only Berkman's 12th big league season. Slow start aside, there should be plenty of baseball left in the sweet-stroking switch hitter.

Can you blame him if perhaps he doesn't want to spend it playing for a team with little chance of winning? A team that right now seems destined to be closer to the bottom than the top for the foreseeable future?

Berkman (.213, two home runs in 14 games) admits to feeling the heat trying to get something going for the game's worst offense. Don't worry. He will get hot soon.

At least he was in his normal upbeat mode, laughing at the mood music and joking that sleep was the last thing his bats needed.

“Maybe I should pour some coffee on them,” he said.

“It's really early. The reality is I'm going to hit, Carlos is going to hit, and Hunter (Pence) is going to hit. It's just a matter of when.

“If it all comes at once, heck, we can go from having the worst offensive team in the league to being pretty good offensively. And if we can stay consistent in the starting rotation, you never know what can happen.”